Woman accused of lacing coffee with rat poison

PEKIN — A Pekin man told police he wanted the woman living with him out of his house, then asked a friend to see if she had come back while he was at work.

The friend found Amanda Pollard, 28, had returned with a plan, according to charges filed in Tazewell County Circuit Court.

She put rat poison pellets in Joshua Brewster's coffee container, tucked an electric blanket's cord she had severed under his mattress and urinated in his bottle of mouthwash, the charges allege.

A felony charge of unlawful tampering of food and misdemeanor counts of trespassing and criminal damage to property await her when she next appears in court Dec. 26. Pollard, now of 219 Hamilton St., was ordered held on $50,000 bond last Friday.

Three days earlier, Pollard returned to Brewster's home at 311 Catherine St. to set her traps of revenge, according to a prosecutor's court affidavit. Brewster's friend summoned a police officer, who discovered rat poison pellets in a coffee container and the severed cord, the affidavit stated.

Brewster, 33, had called police Dec. 1 to help him evict Pollard. The next day, when he allowed her to return to retrieve some belongings, she threatened to burn down his residence with him in it, he told police. He asked his friend the following day to check his home while he was at work, the affidavit stated.

The friend reportedly found Pollard cutting the blanket cord. She told him of her "payback" intent, her mouthwash sabotage and the rat poison she said she also put in a cereal box, according to the affidavit.

Questioned later by police, Pollard acknowledged she laced Brewster's coffee with the poison but denied the other acts. She said she was "hurt and angry" over her eviction, the affidavit stated.